Welcome to Haiti

We arrived in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon and checked in with the Habitat Staff.  We were handed our tool bag, hard hat, and shade hat!  We then headed off to the Opening Ceremonies with the other 400+ volunteers!  We heard from Patrick Corvington, Senior Vice President, who asked us "How many people had questioned our decision to come to Haiti?"  He told us he did not question our wisdom for one second! My favorite quote of his was "No matter what we see in the news; no matter what we read or what we hear - humanity always wins - service always wins"

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter

President Carter welcomed us to the Haiti Work Week and thanked us for our participation!  He also told us to work hard and not spend time taking pictures of him working on his house. . .he had a lot of work to do in 5 days!  President Carter reminded us that he is 87 years old and has had two knee replacements so he might not be able to work all day every day but he will work hard!


Mark Andrews, in charge of the Haiti recovery, told us that we would be: Shocked. Saddened, Overwhelmed, Confused, Frustrated, Angry, Energized, and Transformed during the week.


As the night came to a close we were reminded by the CEO of Habitat that the conditions would be less than ideal and we should feel free to voice our frustrations but should end each sentence with ". . . and that's the way we like it!"

Delta Habitat Plane

We woke up bright and early to board the Delta flight to Haiti!  I have to give Delta huge props for the sponsorship of Habitat!  They had dedicated check in counters for our group of 400+ and the check in was swift and smooth.  The service on the flight was better than any first class service!  We had a full hot lunch, snacks, and a movie!  Way to go Delta!!!!

Home Sweet Home

We arrived in Port au Prince and from the moment we stepped off the plane the heat was shocking!  We boarded our buses and made the drive through Port au Prince to Leogane, we passed people living in the most deplorable conditions that I have ever witnessed!  There has not been any rebuilding in Port au Prince in the slums - it is heartbreaking to witness.

We arrived in Camp at Christianville late in the afternoon and they were not kidding about the primitive conditions!  We were assigned tent #95 and it was a 10 person tent now holding 14 cots. . . Just the way we like it . . .Not!  The tents were hot, hot, hot!  They have so many tents crammed into the camp that there is not enough space between tents to open the side windows to allow a cross breeze!  We sent up our personal mosquito tents and went off to dinner!

Our Tent Row #95 at the end

The dining tent was huge and the best part of it was it was air conditioned!!!!  The Irish group "Haven" was running the camp and the food was pretty good!  The first night the lines were really long for dinner and we realized that a lot of the week would be spent in lines and waiting. . . and that's the way we like it!

We spent a first rough night sleeping in the hot tent and were scheduled to wake a t 5:30am to go to breakfast.  I was woken up at 4am because one of our tent mates decided to repack her suitcase!  She had packed everything in plastic grocery bags so the crinkling sound was loud and irritating. . .but TTWWLI!

We were on the busses headed for the site at 6:30am!  Jeanna and I sat together and Eva and Gayle each took a window seat in the rows in front of us.  I was tired and not paying attention as we were waiting for the bus to leave, Jeanna jabs in the ribs and points at Eva and Gayle.  I look up and Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are sitting with our friends and chatting away!!  They were so nice and down to earth!

One of our Houses

We were assigned to houses #101 and #122!  Our crew leader, Rob was from Florida and had done a couple of the Jimmy Carter Work Weeks.  Our crew consisted of the four of us (Gayle, Eva, Jeanna, and I) and three other volunteers.  Jeff and Karen worked at their local Habitat Chapters and Stephen was an English teacher in New Jersey.  Eight of us were going to build two houses in 5 days!

Setting the walls

 The concrete stem walls were done before we arrived and all the building materials for each house were stacked in the back.  We took inventory and then were ready to put up the four walls!  It was so hot and humid that we were dripping with sweat the entire day!  Culligan provided us with bottled water and there were coolers of ice cold water all over the work site.  They also came around with electrolyte replacements twice a day to prevent dehydration!

Chaos of Building

 The building is very satisfying and the new homeowners were very appreciative of all our work!  All of the Haitians that we came in contact thanked us profusely for coming to help them.

Adding the Roof Trusses

End of Day 1

We worked until 4pm on the first day - we were able to get up all the walls and the roof trusses on one of the houses.  Tomorrow will be a lot of hammering as we have to put all the hurricane braces on all the walls and trusses!

We came back to camp and had dinner then off to the showers.  The showers were cold but it felt great!  Then I was off to peruse the local craft vendors.  After a short shopping spree I was sitting on a wall talking to a couple of people, we noticed an increase in secret service in our area.  We were commenting on how nice Jimmy Carter was and how we admire his commitment to public service.  After a couple of minutes we heard a familiar southern drawl and realized he was sitting two people away from us!!!  The secret service guy smiled as we realized how close he was and then gave us this piece of advice "the first rule of thumb is to be aware of your surroundings!"  Rosalynn Carter then walked up, she had been shopping and like any other man Jimmy was sitting waiting for her!  She showed him her purchases and he stood up and put his arm around her and they walked away. . .it was a very touching moment!

I spent the rest of the evening in the air conditioned tent until it was time to go back to my hot and humid tent to sleep quick. . .5:30am comes awfully early. . .but that's the way we like it!